


Love is a lie in your arms

by orphan_account



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, M/M, Manipulation, Mention of Underage Sex, all sorts of bad things, dark!Ori
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-29
Updated: 2013-10-29
Packaged: 2017-12-30 21:16:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1023477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The line of Ri was famed for three things: beauty, efficiency, and high prices.<br/>Dwalin was asked to convince the youngest of the brothers to get on the right side of the law, and he agreed.<br/>It's a decision he might end up regretting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love is a lie in your arms

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bunfun](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bunfun/gifts).



> for a fic-trade with Aphpandeimos, who asked:  
> the brothers ri are contracters. mercenaries. one of the “good guys” (durin’s line) decide to take advantage of the youngest one for information.  
> little do they know that Ori’s been in the job since he was tiny, due to his family’s difficult life, despite his brothers trying their best, and not as stupid or naive as they think he looks.
> 
> something angsty, sad, heartbreaky. with ori in it. well, ori is the heartbroken, but not the weak one.

The line of Ri was famed for three things: beauty, efficiency, and high prices. 

And at the moment, they seemed to be working for Grej the Blind, who wasn't a mob boss as much as he was a mob king. The true king in Ered Luin, he liked to call himself. Causing trouble everywhere he wanted, and Thorin couldn't tolerate it.

"If he's got the Ris, there's nothing we can do," Dwalin grumbled one day. "Litlle fuckers are good. They probably don't like Greg anymore than we do, but he's paying them."

"They're from bloody Erebor!" Thorin retorted. "They should be loyal to me, not some Broadbeam thief! There's got to be a way to remind them where their true allegiance lies!"

"There's one. It's called money. Which we don't have."

"They must have another weakness. Everyone has one. The young one, the one who looks likes he still believe Durin's day presents are brought by Mahal himself..."

"What, you mean little Ori? He's just a kid that one, don't you dare think of getting him involved."

Dwalin liked little Ori, though they had never really talked. He was a good kid, a bit naive maybe, but good. He'd almost been apprenticed to Balin, but then his brothers must have realized that it'd be dangerous for them. They hardly ever let the child talk to anyone, so an apprenticeship...

"He's involved anyway," Thorin grunted. "And he has to be their weak point. If we could get him to our side, the other two would follow. We'd Just have to... convince him."

"Convince... how?"

"He's young and easy to impress. You are big and impressive. Find something."

Dwalin grunted, but he knew better than to protest. When Thorin had an idea, nothing could change his mind.

  
  


Ori was home alone when Dwalin came to see him. Then again, the child was almost always home alone. Except he wasn't really a child anymore. He had to be in his sixties,  and he'd grown pretty since last time Dwalin had seen him. Naive and pretty. A dangerous combination with brothers like his. No wonder the other two didn't want him around other people. Dwalin wasn't in that sort of things, but there were dwarves out there with a taste for delicate little dolls like that kid.

"May I help you, sir? Oh! Aren't you master Balin's brother?"

"Aye, kid. Tell me, are your brothers home?"

"No, sir. It's Just me, keeping the shop, as you can see," Ori said with a disarming little laugh. "Can I take a message for them?"

Dwalin hesitated. Find something, Thorin had said. Convince him. Easier said than done. Dwalin could make criminals talk, easily enough, but innocent kids with big brown eyes were another matter, and he didn't like the only way he could think of. He had to make himself think of the last people found dead in the usual style of Dori to make himself talk again.

"No, kid, you're the one I wanted to see. Say, would you ever consider... you are pretty, kid, and smart too, Balin tells me. Any chance I could ever interest you in a walk with me?"

The boy didn't blush, and for a short second, he bore an expression of surprised wariness. But that must have been only Dwalin's guilt talking, because in the blink of a eye, the boy was all flustered sweetness again.

"Oh! But you're noble, and I... well, my mama was a seamstress! Oh, you cannot be serious!"

Dwalin almost laughed. Ari Foxface, a seamstress. The poor kid didn't know anything, did he?

"Kid, you mother could have been a troll, I wouldn't care, since she's not the one I want to walk with today."

"Oh. Fair enough, I s'ppose. It's Just a walk, right? No funny business, right?"

"Of course," Dwalin answered, hoping it wouldn't come to that. "Just a walk, and a little talking, as friends."

  
  


Two hours later, Dwalin found himself thinking that funny business wouldn't be such a chore. He'd gladly sacrifice himself if he had to.

Ori was very clearly an innocent who didn't have the first idea what his family did, but that didn't mean he was innocent in all matters. Dwalin could tell the kid was trying to seduce him, with his sly looks, his shy smiles, the way he was touching the warrior's arms and tattoos as he admired them... the little minx was trying to seduce him, and it was working.

Dwalin didn't care for fragile little gems, but clever little things who knew they had lips made for things much more pleasurable than talking... That was another problem entirely.

Oh, yes. If he had to take a pretty little lover to get information on Grej, or even better to get the Ri brothers to their side, then he would.

  
  


It took three other such walks before Ori shyly suggested that his brothers wouldn't be home that night, and that Dwalin could join him for tea, if he wanted.

They didn't have tea, in the end, but they had many more interesting things instead. Dwalin had been right: Ori had a very clever mouth, and nice, dextrous fingers. It had been a while since Dwalin had had a lover so talented, and he had missed it. He'd almost forgotten why he'd ended in Ori's bed when the boy yawned against his skin that he probably should go.

"Wouldn't be good if my brothers found you here in the morning. They're a little protective sometimes."

Dwalin saw his chance then, and took it.

"Do you know what your brothers do, kid?"

"Hmhm. Jacks of all trades, they do about anything, long as it feeds us. Had to, after Ma died."

"Any chance they'd ever work for Thorin, you think?"

"Long as he pays... but why are we talking 'bout that? Nicer things to do if you have energy..."

He smiled at Dwalin, in a way that would have been sweet and innocent if he hadn't been naked with a hand between Dwalin's legs.

"Your brothers... you should tell them Thorin wants them with him. It'd be easier for us, too."

"Easier?" Ori asked, kissing his way down the taller dwarf's body.

"We can be together anyway," Dwalin explained with a moan. "But if your brothers work for Thorin..."

For a second, Dwalin thought he saw a spark of anger on his little lover's face. Then Ori playfully bit him inside his thigh, and he forgot about it.

"We'll see about it," Ori decided, and then the topic changed.

  
  


Next time they were together, Dwalin asked him if he had talked to his brothers. Ori blushed prettily, and explained he hadn't. 

"They'd ask why I know the king has a job for them, and I can't... not yet... they are so protective... and also, they aren't home tonight."

Dwalin smirked, and followed the boy to his room.

  
  


Two guards died that night, and Lord Borin's only child was kidnapped. 

Thorin was furious.

"It reeks of Nori's work, and you weren't there! The guards were panicked and disorganised without you, so where the fuck were you?"

"Was my night off."

"Since when do you actually take these?"

"I've got a life, Thorin. I'm getting laid, and you should too. Would do you good."

"You chose now to get a lover? I thought you were working on bringing the youngest Ri to our side?"

"I am."

Thorin grimaced in disgust.

"He's a child. When I asked you to impress him, I didn't mean... is it working, at least?"

"He's pretty smitten. Sure he'd marry me if I asked. I just need to make him convince his brothers now. Piece of cake."

Thorin didn't look convinced, but Dwalin didn't have any doubts.

And if he played it well, Thorin would have the Ri brothers, and he would keep the most delightful of lovers.

  
  


There was a theft next time he spent a night with Ori. The time after it was a murder. Another theft. Murder. Kidnapping. Theft.

A coincidence, Dwalin thought. A very annoying coincidence, because it meant less time with Ori every time he had to investigate... but he still made time for the boy. He was fairly sure he'd never get the Ris on their side, because Ori was too shy to admit to his brothers that he had a lover... Or he'd have to marry the boy, which wasn't such a bad idea, if he could just convince their brothers...

Ori laughed sweetly when Dwalin first brought up the idea. Since they were naked and in bed, Dwalin didn't mind. Ori often laughed that way when he was content.

"We'll see. It would be nice... You'd take good care of me, right? Hm... so big and strong, of course you would. And I'd be... the pretty little husband you can show off?"

"There'd be no showing you off," Dwalin protested with a kiss. "I'd want you as my equal."

Ori sighed.

"Wouldn't it be nice... until you got killed on duty..."

"Is that all the trust you have in me?"

"Hm... but you have mentioned that horrible dwarf... Grej? I have heard of him, he is so dangerous... Oh, I'd feel so much better, knowing you aren't in such danger... I love you too much to lose you... Oh!"

The boy pressed a hand against his mouth in embarrassment, but Dwalin pushed it away to kiss him fiercely. It was the first time Ori said these words...

"I love you too, kid."

"So you will stop that awful, dangerous work then?"

"It's not that I don't want to, but Thorin..."

"So Thorin is more important than me then?" Ori mumbled sadly. "Oh, I... I understand of course... he has been your friend for so long, but I thought..."

Dwalin kissed him again, more firmly this time, to erase his sudden guilt.

"I am a guard, I protect Ered Luin... Someone has to."

"Yes... but why should it be you?"

There were thousands of reason why, but all of a sudden, none of them felt good enough, because Ori looked so worried.

They didn't make love again that day.

  
  


Every time they met after that, Ori made it quite clear that he didn't like his lover's job. He didn't ask Dwalin to resign again. Instead, he just refused to talk about it at all sometimes, only to mention at their next date that this guard had been wounded, and that other one had died.

More than once, Dwalin found himself wondering what other job he could do if he stopped being a guard. He could play the violin fairly well... would Ori marry a mere musician though? They would have to talk about it.

But before Dwalin could breach the subject with his wonderful little lover, they arrested Dori.

  
  


It was nothing short of a miracle. The line of Ri didn't get _arrested_. They were too good for that.

it happened on a night where Dwalin was with Ori, and so the glory of the arrest fell onto another, but he didn't care. They had Dori. The head of the Ri family, and they had him in a cell, under constant watch. And if Nori tried to get him out, as he certainly would, they would get him too.

It'd be easy then. Thorin would trade their freedom against information on Grej, and their faithfulness to the royal family of Erebor. It would be easy. It should have been easy.

Dwalin hadn't thought that of course, Ori would hear that his brother had been arrested,  and that he wouldn't like it. The guard just wasn't prepared for the sight of his young lover barging into his office, tears in his eyes, clothes not matching as if he'd just ran out of the house as soon as he had heard.

"They say you have Dori!" He sobbed. "It's not true, right? He's never done nothing wrong!"

Dwalin hesitated. The kid didn't know about his brothers, and if Dwalin told him... he might get the wrong idea about their relationship, think that Dwalin had used him to get close to the other two... and that had stopped being true long ago.

"He was found on a crime scene," he said instead. "It doesn't mean anything, but we have to keep him in for now..."

"No! You have to release him! Oh, Dwalin, please... he's my brother, please!"

"Kid, I'm sorry, but this is... you wouldn't understand. It's more complicated than it looks. I love you, kid, but your brother has to stay in."

Ori let out another loud sob, throwing a pitiful look at Dwalin... 

Then all of a sudden he straightened up, and he wasn't Ori anymore. The shyly flirting was replaced by hardness, the clever eyes turned cold, and the lips Dwalin had so often kiss didn't show a loving grin, but a disdainful smirk.

It was Ori, and yet it wasn't him at all.

"Well, I didn't really expect that to work," Not Ori admitted. "But I had to try anyway. I guess the game is over then..."

"Game? Ori, kid, what's..."

"Let Dori go," Not Ori ordered, "or I'll make sure everyone took to bed a child not even old enough to marry."

"What?"

Not Ori grinned like a tomcat.

"Oh, did I forget to mention? You never asked my age, you just assumed... dwarves like you always do. It's so easy, it's not even funny."

"Ori, love, I don't understand. What are you talking about?"

Not Ori walked toward his chair, and even the way he moved was different, as if he were a wild cat, or even a warg on the hunt. Dwalin had never fancied himself a prey before, but he did now. He didn't like the feeling. 

"You really believed it all, uh?" Not Ori all but purred, leaning against Dwalin, almost seductively. "It worked so well, I thought you were faking it but no, it was all real... And I know it was real, because you're so bad at lying."

"I don't know what..."

Not Ori smiled, that disarming, cheerful little smile he had sometimes... and Dwalin had to catch the boy's wrist before he could grab the keys at his belt.

"Your brother is a criminal, a killer, " Dwalin said, hoping the truth might shock his lover, bring back his Ori somehow...

Instead, the boy just laughed again.

"Well, we are the line of Ri, aren't we? And you're a criminal too, fucking a child... what will people say when they hear about it? The line of Durin fucks children! Ah! As if your king didn't have enough problems! He should never have sent you to me. You had no chance."

"You knew?"

"I am Ori, son of Ari, daughter of Lari. I know a lot about seducing people for information. You, on the other hand, are _shit_ at it. I swear, half the time I almost couldn't keep a straight face, you were so pathetic. But it's over now. You are going to sign a paper allowing my brother to go, and then you'll ask someone to free him, and he is going to go away with me. Because if you don't,  I will rip my clothes and cry until someone comes, and I will tell everyone how you tried to money my brother's freedom for sex. And people will believe me. They always do."

Dwalin stared at the boy, his blood turned to ice.

"So... everything was a lie?"

"Down to the tiniest moan I let out when you put your ugly big paws on me," Ori replied with a proud little smile, the same one he had when he was very happy with a drawing.

Dwalin winced. 

And signed the paper. What else could he have done?

The worst, he thought as he watch Dori and Ori go, was that he already knew he would miss the boy for a long time, even like that.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I will not write Ori's side of things, because I have enough WIPs as it is  
> But Ori's side of it involve a possibly incestuous, certainly unhealthy and mutually possessive relationship with his brothers, because they can't trust anyone but each other, and the rest of the world is nothing but tools and enemies.


End file.
